An entry into my professional world. I have many goals that I still wish to accomplish and this blog will help me to be introduced to different ideas that will help me to grow as an educator! -Ashley McFarlan

For my fourth and final Remix project I decided to select the assignment Movie Scenes That Changed Your Life. We were to select 3-5 Movie scenes that had a significant impact on your life. I decided to select a scene from Antwone Fisher, a scene from Love and Basketball and finally a scene from the movie Save the Last Dance. These three scenes have changed my life in their own personal way and I discussed them in the short film. At first I thought that this project was going to be very simple; however, I was sadly mistaken. This fourth project was by far the hardest Remix assignment for me to complete and I am very satisfied with the way in which it turned out.

This project could have been pretty simple for me had I taken the easy way out. I could have easily popped in the DVD’s that I had and filmed my TV from my phone, uploaded those films and put them into my iMovie application in my MacBook, but I really wanted to try to use the technology to the best of my ability. I wanted to be able to get the scenes from the computer. I first tried to find my favorite, and probably one of the most poignant scenes in Antone Fisher, but I could not find it online anywhere. After talking to many coworkers and friends I decided to download the app, iSkysoft DVD Ripper. I had all the DVD’s that I needed but I needed to find a way to get clips from these films. When I first uploaded the movie in the system it took 94 minutes and I was very frustrated. I put it away and came back to it later. I opened it in a chapter format, found the chapter I needed, declined to upload the rest of the film and put the chapters into iMovie. I then trimmed two of the films in iMovie before I finally discovered how to trim them in iSkysoft. I trimmed them in iSkysoft, converted them into my computer and was able to take the exact parts I needed from the movie and import them into iMovie. Once they were in iMovie I put them all together. Next I selected the microphone, this allows you to implement a voiceover into your movie. After I tweeked and fine tuned the voiceover to be exactly how I wanted it, I finalized the movie and it was complete!

I really enjoyed doing this Remix project. It helped me to learn more about software and tools that I can use to get movie clips for presentations. I also learned how to implement a voiceover into my iMovie projects, something that I had never been able to do before!

I put a great amount of work into our last Remix assignment in the audio category. I created an “educational rap,” for students to one of my favorite songs “Otis,” by Jay-Z and Kanye West. Although I must say that I do not listen to rap music very much, Jay-Z is my favorite rapper and Watch the Throne, his collaboration CD with Kanye West is one of my favorite albums. I spent a lot of time listening to that album, whether on my iPod, iPhone, or even my car trips. I even treated myself to tickets to the Watch the Throne tour for my birthday! There were many songs on the album that I enjoyed; however, Otis, the CD’s first single was definitely my favorite. I am an R&B girl and Kanye West, the sample or remix king, perfected the mix of hardcore rap and sensual soul. He used a sample from Try a Little Tenderness, by Otis Redding, hence the title of the song. When I was thinking of songs to use I figured I’d use my love for R&B and Jay-Z to help me out. With this third remix project we were asked to do some designing. One of the options was to create an Album cover. I thought that it’d be a perfect idea to piggyback off of my previous remix and create my album cover for my Otis Remix song!

The motivation for my cover begins with the song Otis itself. In the video West and Z(Jay that is), can be seen styling and profiling in front of a very funky looking American Flag. This flag was also used as the backdrop while they were performing the song at the concert. I felt that if I were to truly pay homage to the creators of one of my favorite songs and inspiration for my remix I had to some way incorporate that flag in my cover. Next I thought it’d be cool to have some sort of picture of me on the album since everyone buying it would need to put a face to the name. I am not actually putting the song on iTunes, but every up and coming artist needs to be seen. Where Jay-Z and Kanye can have a silhouette on their album I’d need a little bit more for my marketing because I am not yet on that level! I found a picture of me sporting a New York Yankee snap back cap and felt it’d be perfect for the picture. Snap Backs are all the rage in young fashion today and I also felt that I’d incorporate another small coincidence that Jay-Z and I have. We are both from New York and he can always be seen sporting a New York Yankees hat. In his song Empire State of Mind, he states that he “Made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can!” I don’t know if that is necessarily true, but in his Black Album CD cover he is doing a similar pose to mine and I thought it’d be cool to channel my inner Jay-Z!

When creating my album cover, I went with Pixlr again! I thought it’d be a good choice; however, this time I used more options. I inserted the Flag as my backdrop by inserting the link. Next I inserted my picture, which I took on my MacBook Pro in the Photo Booth with the Thermal Camera effect. When the picture was inserted over the American Flag, I used the History Brush and eraser to edit and bring back most of the Flag. Next I used the text to insert the words. I typed the Title of the song and my name and changed my font to Boycott and changed the color to blue to match the Blue in the flag. Finally I sized the font accordingly. I used a Focal Blur to blur the edges and make my picture and most of the words my focal point. Finally I selected color and changed the Hue, Saturation, and lightness to get it exactly how I wanted it.

I really enjoyed this project and thought it’d be a cool way to tie my two Remix projects together. Who knows perhaps the world premier of the Otis Remix video will be coming to a screen near you! Check back to Remix 4!

So I decided to make my own rap song to one of my favorite songs Otis by Jay-Z and Kanye West. I thought that this task would be extremely difficult to complete; however, it was quite simple. The fact that I had a MacBook made this task even more simple because I was able to use the Garage Band application.

I started my journey to music production by going to YouTube and getting the instrumental to Otis. I converted it to an mp3 song and put it into my iTunes library. I am not sure if this is entirely legal and I still try to purchase all of my music, but for the sake of this assignment I took the easy way out! Don’t worry I have the original song Purchased from the Watch the Throne Album, and I also attended the concert!

I finally had my music I sent it to my home screen and once I was in Garage Band I entered that I would be using vocals as my instrument. I placed the song into garage band and then recorded my vocal along side of it! I did some major “tweeking,” to edit the song and even went as far as using two separate versions of the song to cut it down exactly how I wanted it. Once I had my vocals the way that I felt I wanted them and the music went somewhat flawlessly I copied the song as an iTunes file. I shared it on Drop Box and Presto I am the next up and coming Diddy!

All in all this was a very fun experience and I am really pleased with how the song turned out!

Here is a remix that I have done to a song called Otis by my favorite rapper Jay-Z and his partner in crime Kanye West. This song features a sample from the song Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding, hence the title of the track! I had an amazing time with this project from “trying,” to create my own lyrics to getting the music and trying to have it exactly how I wanted it!

This project definitely helped me to learn a ton of new things and I really enjoyed broadening my horizons!

For my first remix assignment I thought I’d do a little movie creeping. I really enjoy many movies and found myself at a crossroad when selecting one that can be considered “famous!” Then I thought back to a trip I took to Universal Studios in Orlando Florida for Labor Day and remembered the fun I had eating at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Co. All of the great food and Forrest Gump trivia really got me thinking! I decided to creep on Forrest and Jenny and what better way to creep then by including a pair of shoes from my own Nike Collection!

To remix this photo I first went to google images and selected a Forrest Gump photo. Next I went into Pixlr where I selected open URL and inserted the web address. Next I went to adjustment and add image. I selected my own image and after some serious adjusting I inserted it into the original photo. Finally I went to the History Brush where I was able to erase my body to fit into the original screen.

It was truly a fun experience and I cannot wait until my next Remix assignment!

Often times as a student when writing papers and trying to find credible sources I was told NEVER to go on Wikipedia. Today we put our skills to the test and were asked to use an “old school,” Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and Britannica to search something that was Moderately obscure. My group chose the Chokecherry, something that we all have never heard about before. To our amazement Wikipedia had the most information, and better picture options as well! This information truly shocked us all and we were extremely excited about what we had discovered.

When we compared what we had found on Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Americana, and Britannica the information was rather credible. Encyclopedia Americana as well as Britannica offered roughly 150 words; however, Britannica gave you the first 100 free and you had to sign up to purchase the next 58! Wikipedia on the other hand, offered more information. We were also provided us with different varieties of that berry as well as its consumption. There was a black and white photo in the Encyclopedia Americana, whereas the Britannica and Wikipedia provided us with colored photographs. Wikipedia also added other pictures for us to chose from! This allowed us to really be able to see the many differences and get a better idea of what the Chokecherry was.

All in all we were amazed at how the site that is seen often times viewed as taboo and an absolute “no no,” for educators was the most informative for our experiment!

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An entry into my professional world. I have many goals that I still wish to accomplish and this blog will help me to be introduced to different ideas that will help me to grow as an educator! -Ashley McFarlan